Equity and social exclusion measures in EU lifelong learning policies

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to examine how EU lifelong learning policies are trying to reach the vulnerable by looking at what measures against social exclusion they offer and how equitable these measures are. It is a qualitative study that focuses on policy documents that form the European Union’s legal and political frameworks of reference in the lifelong learning area since 1992. The document analysis has been complemented by semi-structured interviews with EU lifelong learning experts. The findings show that early school leavers and migrants are the main target groups in the policies, leaving many other groups at risk of being excluded from learning opportunities. There is not enough attention to measures addressing wider social phenomena. There is also an overemphasis on basic skills which are understood in a very narrow way as literacy and numeracy when referring to the vulnerable. We argue that a greater variety of measures as well as better targeted measures are needed to address the multiple and complex needs of the vulnerable. Such measures would allow a broader understanding of lifelong learning where those that are hardest to reach are offered learning opportunities independent of their personal and social circumstances     

Spelling deficits in dyslexia: evaluation of an orthographic spelling training

Orthographic spelling is a major difficulty in German-speaking children with dyslexia. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an orthographic spelling training in spelling-disabled students (grade 5 and 6). In study 1, ten children (treatment group) received 15 individually administered weekly intervention sessions (60 min each). A control group (n = 4) did not receive any intervention. In study 2, orthographic spelling training was provided to a larger sample consisting of a treatment group (n = 13) and a delayed treatment control group (n = 14). The main criterion of spelling improvement was analyzed using an integrated dataset from both studies. Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that gains in spelling were significantly greater in the treatment group than in the control group. Statistical analyses also showed significant improvements in reading (study 1) and in a measure of participants’ knowledge of orthographic spelling rules (study 2). The findings indicate that an orthographic spelling training enhances reading and spelling ability as well as orthographic knowledge in spelling-disabled children learning to spell a transparent language like German.     

Adolescents’ future wishes and fears in their acculturation process

In this study we aim at learning about adolescents’ future fears and wishes from different cultural origins with a view to finding implications for intervention in the furthering of their satisfaction and social integration in their acculturation process. The study sample comprised 938 secondary school students—64.4% Spanish, 19.7% South American and 12.8% African. Wishes and fears were evaluated by means of two open questions and the answers were categorized following traditional content analysis methodology. Results show that the adolescents wish for a satisfactory job, family and economic situation, and that they are concerned about aspects such as their own health and that of their family, the possibility of having a precarious job, isolation from their family of origin, and not forming a family. The findings also allow us to give differential profiles according to the cultural origin of the adolescents.     

The Perplexed World of Russian Private Schools: Findings from field research

Based on field research conducted in 1997-98 in St Petersburg, Russia, this paper explores the contemporary status and viability of the postcommunist elementary and secondary private schools. Findings from in-depth qualitative interviews, observations and analysis of documents suggest that the Russian private schools find themselves in a perplexed and precarious situation. Although formally legalised, they operate amidst the anomic situation of legal contradictions. Financially unstable, they engage in a dual economy with heavy reliance on informal networks, sometimes criminal in nature. It is predicted that the current socioeconomic crisis will diminish the number and diversity of private schools. It is argued that private schools' survival depends on the stabilisation of the Russian economy, and political and legal protection of minority rights.     

Exploring the Relationships between Employee Burnout,Organizational Dissent and Work-family Culture in Russian Organizations

ABSTRACT

Employees who fail to balance work and life responsibilities are likely to experience job burnout and, ultimately, withdraw their engagement and voice in the workplace. The current study explored the relationships between employee burnout, work-family balance, and organizational dissent. More importantly, these relationships were tested in an under-researched and culturally unique context, Russia. Data collected from 232 full-time employees in the Perm region were analysed using multiple regression analysis. Analysis revealed that employee burnout is negatively related to articulated dissent and positively related to latent dissent. Furthermore, employees who receive managerial support for prioritizing family issues are less likely to experience job burnout. The influences of national culture and macroeconomic factors on the tested relationships are further discussed     

Engaging Families in Public Libraries

Public libraries today are undergoing significant transformations as well as interacting with patrons in new and different ways (Knight Foundation 2017). Part of this transformation is the way libraries are engaging entire families. Libraries are playing a stronger role than ever before in supporting families to promote children’s early literacy and reading skills (Celano and Neuman 2015; Nagle et al. 2016; Neuman and Celano 2010), stimulating adult learning (Boden and Tashijan 2015), creating initiatives to improve family health (Morgan et al. 2016), providing services to families with extreme challenges such as those experiencing poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, and incarceration (Holt and Holt 2010; Terille 2016), as well as becoming spaces for families, especially those who are recent immigrants, to build new relationships and social networks (Khoir et al. 2017; Vårheim 2014). Despite these efforts, few studies have specifically sought to understand the organizational dimensions that support family engagement within a library system and the potential that these efforts have in promoting children’s learning not only in the early years, but also into and throughout middle childhood and adolescence. Based on a yearlong study investigating the power of family engagement in public libraries, this article considers how libraries can begin to adopt a systemic approach to family engagement to further innovate the library space.     

Working With Students With Psychiatric Disabilities or Other Emotional Problems

The professional literature on gatekeeping in social work education has grown; however, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding how educators truly work to engage students who are experiencing a psychiatric disability or other emotional problem. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 26 social work educators from 22 colleges and universities in the United States. Practice wisdoms emerged as interwoven strategies which encourage proactive interventions that accentuate students’ strengths through socially just opportunities. Identified strategies include having an awareness of psychosocial and environmental stressors that students may be experiencing, recognizing warning signs, approaching students, and building appropriate faculty–student relationships.     

Familiarity and relatedness: Effects on social learning about foods by Norway rats and Mongolian gerbils

In recent experiments in which the social influences on feeding in Mongolian gerbils were investigated, observer gerbils acquired food preferences from conspecific demonstrators only if the demonstrators and observers were either related or familiar. Even then, the effects of demonstrator gerbils on observers’ food choices lasted less than 24 h. In similar experiments with Norway rats, the familiarity/relatedness of demonstrators and observers had little effect on social learning, and the demonstrators’ influence on observers’ food choices lasted many days. We examined the causes of these differences and found that, after observer gerbils interacted with either unfamiliar or familiar conspecific demonstrators that had been fed using procedures typically used to feed demonstrator rats, they showed long-lasting social learning about foods, whereas observer rats interacting with conspecific demonstrators that had been fed as demonstrator gerbils normally are fed showed effects of familiarity/relatedness to demonstrators on their social learning about foods. Procedural differences, rather than species differences, seem to be responsible for reported inconsistencies in social learning about foods by rats and gerbils.     

The relationships between pelvic range of motion,step width and performance during an athletic sprint start

ABSTRACT

The aims of this study were (a) to describe the kinematics underlying the phenomenon of the knee of the swing leg passing medially in front of the athlete during the single push (SP) phase of the block sprint start, and (b) to determine the relationships between block phase pelvis range of motion (RoM), 1^st step width and block phase performance. Three-dimensional kinematic data (250 Hz) were collected from eleven competitive sprinters (100 m PB: 11.17 ± 0.41) performing maximal effort block starts. The joint angles of the rear hip with respect to the pelvis and the pelvis segment angles with respect to the laboratory coordinate system were calculated during the block start phase to the end of the 1^st stance. A combination of pelvis list and rotation (not hip adduction) was coupled with the thigh of the swing leg moving medially during the SP phase. A very high positive correlation was found between pelvic list RoM and 1^st step width (r = 0.799, p = 0.003). No other significant correlations were found. Attempting to reduce pelvic RoM or changing frontal and transverse plane hip joint angles to minimise medial thigh motion is unlikely to lead to an improvement to performance.     

Faculty and student perceptions of outstanding university teachers in the USA and Russia

The majority of research that relates teacher characteristics to student learning in the university has come from Western universities. Using various methodologies, research continues to examine the characteristics of outstanding university teachers. Much of that research in the USA assesses faculty and student perspectives. However, there are nearly no cross‐cultural comparisons on this issue. We examined faculty and student perspectives about outstanding university teachers in the USA and in Russia. Faculty members and students at the University of Central Arkansas, Orel State University and Moscow City University rated the qualities of outstanding teachers on the Teacher Behaviors Checklist (TBC). Results showed significant positive correlations for the relative importance of teacher characteristics across the six participant groups. There did not appear to be any substantial differences between the American and Russian counterparts for 21 of the 28 specific teacher characteristics. The comparison of American and Russian faculty and students suggests more universality than cross‐cultural differences in the characteristics of outstanding university teachers.